Voyage One

I had reported to the federation offices in the royal group docks on Monday 5th September, and was previously given a job on the Duquesa.

On leaving the shipping federation offices I made my way to the King George basin, where the Royston Grange, a Houlder Brothers ship, was berthed. I got this ship after being expected to work straight away on the Duquesa. The Royston grange also carried twelve passengers.

When I got on board I found that everyone had a single berth cabin. My cabin was located on the deck above the main deck. However there was a two berth cabin within the catering staff accommodation for two boys, but this was only used for storage. My cabin consisted of a bed with drawers and storage underneath, a settee, a wardrobe and chest of drawers. It even had a book rack on the wall and a sink behind the door.

Once I had settled in, I made my way to the galley, which was an enormous place. It spread from one side of the ship to the other, and it had a lower area, one deck down, for a butchers and bakers shop. Also there was an area for vegetable preparation. This was where the main freezers were along with the dry store rooms. In the upper part of the galley was the sink area for me to do all the washing up, not one sink but two. I was in the lower part of the galley, outside the butchers shop peeling potatoes with a small paring knife, when all of a sudden the knife slipped and cut my left thumb. It was quite a deep cut and I was taken to the local hospital. On arrival I was assessed, and two stitches were put into my thumb. This stopped me using the knife for a while, and I could not do any washing up as I was advised not to get the wound wet for several days.

Now to peel the potatoes, I had to use the equipment that was provided, an electric potato peeler. This form of peeling potatoes always seemed very slow, but I did keep using it throughout the voyage. The scar from the cut is still visible today along with the stitch holes.

I signed on the ship on Wednesday 14th September I was to be paid £21-12s- 6d a month and I sent £6-0s-0d a month home. We set sail on Friday 16th September, out of the basin assisted by two tugs with the pilot on board and out into the river, on our way to Gravesend, where we were to change pilots, then down the lower reaches of the river and out into the channel where we were to disembark the pilot. We were then on our way, for our next port of call. Once we were into the channel the walkers patent log was put into use, this was a bronze rotator attached to a long line which when rotated by the ships movement forwards, measured the distance travelled and the speed. This item of equipment was used when leaving every port of call.

On our way we had a fire/boat drill. We were alerted to this by the constant ringing of the alarm bells. We would gather on the boat deck and once our names were registered, we got out the fire hoses and tested them. Then it was the turn of the lifeboats once again, release the clamps press a button and down the boat would go, press another button and up she would come. Lock the clamps and everyone back to their normal duties. On a Sunday morning the captain would inspect the whole of the ship to see if it was kept clean. Also he would hold a church service in the passenger lounge for everyone on board. Being partly passenger (12), it was the custom to hold a church service every Sunday that we were at sea. In port we could use the local churches.

We stopped at Sao Vicente, Cape Verde islands for refuelling arriving and departing the same day Friday 23rd September. There was not anytime to go ashore.

We made our way to South America and arrived at Buenos Aires on Monday 3rd October to unload general cargo, and all our passengers.

As I still had my argentine visa I could go ashore almost straight away. Several trips were made ashore to some of the places I had visited before. We left there on Thursday 6th October and arrived at La Plata on the same day to finish unloading. Once unloaded, we started to load meat (beef) from railway wagons – the ships holds were all refrigerated. More trips were made ashore to see more places of interest and the occasional bar or two. The favourite drink was rum and coke which seemed quite plentiful.

We sailed from there on Monday 10th October, arriving the same day back in Buenos Aires, where we anchored near the main port. Trips ashore were made in a small ferry boat that would go from ship to ship. There was no fixed fare on the ferry boat, all we had to do was give the ferryman anything we had, like English cigarettes or beer and sometimes money. He was more than happy with any of these.

During the day time loading of the ship was carried out from small river coasters, the names of these coasters were Yacare and Yaguarete. They were owned by the royal Mail Line of Argentina. They berthed alongside the ship and loaded the ship with frozen beef. Tinned corned beef was loaded into the top of the holds. It was just before we were about to sail, that the passengers came on board for their three week voyage to London.

We sailed on Saturday 15th October, hoisting up the anchor and made our way out of the river Plate. We said goodbye to the pilot, once out of the river area. With an uneventful voyage, for me it was the daily routine as follows – up at seven, down to the potato store and peel the potatoes for lunch. I had a potato peeler machine, and prepared all the vegetables back to the galley, and do the washing up of the galley pots and pans from breakfast, then wash down the deck with buckets of water and big brooms. More preparation for lunch like peeling the potatoes and carrots and slicing up at least a dozen cabbages and more washing up of the galley pots after lunch. Our own lunch was taken when we could. After lunch, most of the catering staff had a two hour break. This gave us time to write letters home or do our washing. In those days it was in a bucket, not a washing machine, and then it was back to the galley to start preparing the evening meal normally at seven in the evening. When we were in port we had tea, at tea time, that would be four so that we had time to go ashore. After the meal was served I would do more washing up and all the galley staff would wash down the galley floor and with a bit of luck we would be out by nine. This was the normal working day.

All too soon the white cliffs of Dover came into view and before we knew it we were picking up the pilot off Dover then up the river Thames to Gravesend to change pilots and onwards to the docks.

We arrived in London docks on Thursday 3rd November where I signed off and went home on leave. I was paid my wages of £41-11s-3d. The records show I did not draw any money during the voyage.

Just before I went on leave, I asked my relief if he could look after my plant I had in my cabin, which he did, good man.

When my leave was over I returned to the ship for the next voyage.

Voyage Two

I returned to the ship after my leave, which included a bonfire night party. Again catching the local bus then the train to Woolwich and across on the ferry. Sometimes if the weather was nice I would walk along the Albert Road to the docks, if not I would take the bus which would stop outside the dock gates.

My cabin and my job function were the same as the last voyage.

I signed on, on Thursday 17th November. Again I was to be earning £21- 12s-6d a month, and I sent home an allotment of £6-0s-0d a month. I also had an advance of £5-0s-0d for some reason. The ship sailed on Saturday, 19th November, out of the basin assisted by two tugs and out into the river on our way to Gravesend, where we were to change pilots then down the lower reaches of the river and out to sea, disembarking the pilot and we were on our way. Once we were in the channel the walkers patent log was put into use.

On our way we had a fire/boat drill. We were alerted to this by the constant ringing of the alarm bells. We would all gather on the boat deck and once our names were registered, we got the fire hoses out and tested them. Next it was the lifeboats. Once again release the clamps at the lifeboat base, press the button and the boat would swing out and lower to the water’s edge. Press the other button and up she came going back onto the clamps and secured. It was then everyone back to their normal duties.

On the Thursday 24th November at 1709 a message was received from Tenerife radio, that a Spanish ship the Barceló Borde, was reported with a leak and was drifting. It was reported that she needed immediate assistance. At 1735 another message was received from Tenerife radio that the Spanish ship’s position had now improved, and she no longer needed any assistance. So we continued on our voyage south.

Re-fuelling was made at Sao Vicente, Cape Verde islands, arriving and departing the same day, again no time for trips ashore. This island looked a fabulous place to visit.

On Friday 25th November, we were on our way to Montevideo arriving on Monday 5th December to unload general cargo, and some of the passengers. A trip was made ashore to see some of the sights and a visit to the dockside bars. We left there on Tuesday 6th December for Buenos Aires arriving the same day, where the remaining passengers disembarked. We were here to load beef again, from the dockside and from the river coasters. These coasters were neat little things and crewed by eighteen people, it was obvious they did not get much food as they were always trying to get freebies from us. More trips were made ashore to visit some old and new haunts visits to the local bars and the occasional restaurant’s in the city. Once the loading was completed we sailed for La Plata on Tuesday 13th December, where more meat was loaded from railway wagons, this took about three days. Lots of trips were made ashore, for you know what. We finally left on Saturday 17th December for Montevideo arriving and departing the same day Sunday 18th December. Again the time in port did not allow many of us a trip ashore.

on the way home I was able to do some overtime by doing some painting in the passenger toilets, I was to paint around the lower part of the toilet walls in a dark green colour. At this time we did not have any passengers on board but two male stowaways were found in some spare crew cabins, they were put off the ship at the next port of call.

refuelling was again at Sao Vicente, Cape Verde islands, arriving on Wednesday 28th December this is where the stowaways left the ship, they did not like the idea of leaving there, because they wanted to go to England, they were not happy.

I had a trip ashore whilst we were here and then the ship sailed on Thursday 29th December.

Before we got to London we had the fortunate time of spending Christmas at sea. On leaving Sao Vicente we were able to also celebrate the New Year at sea. After another uneventful voyage we were soon picking up the pilot and before we knew it we were tied up in the London docks basin, arriving in London on Thursday 5th January, where we all signed off, my wages for this voyage were £35-8s-11d and I had spent £6-2s-4d during the voyage. We then went home on leave for belated holiday celebrations.

Due to the various restrictions on bringing plants into the country, I could not bring my plant home, it had to stay on the ship, so instead of leaving it in my cabin, and I put it with the other plants that were on the ship, they were on display in the officers/passengers dining room.